Fog again halts Houston Ship Channel traffic -US Coast Guard

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Dense sea fog halted vessel traffic along the Houston Ship Channel on Wednesday night, the second stoppage of the day and the fifth since Sunday morning, the U.S. Coast Guard said. At least 70 ships were waiting to traverse the 53-mile (85-km) waterway connecting the busiest U.S. petrochemical port to the Gulf of Mexico, the Coast Guard said. Ship pilots had resumed vessel movement along the Ship Channel on Wednesday afternoon as dense sea fog, which has blanketed the area for much of this week, dissipated, the Coast Guard said. Traffic was stopped again at 5:30 p.m. CST (2330 GMT) on Wednesday due to fog. Ship pilots halt traffic on the channel when fog reduces visibility to unsafe levels. (Reporting by Erwin Seba; Editing by Bernadette Baum, Lisa Shumaker and Gopakumar Warrier)